Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Lady Eleanor Butler
-
Standard Name: Butler, Lady Eleanor
Birth Name: Eleanor Butler
Styled: Lady Eleanor Butler
One of the two renowned Ladies of Llangollen, LEB
produced life-writing (diaries, letters, and some poems) during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, which structured, recorded, and celebrated their shared way of life. Today the writing of her partner, Sarah Ponsonby
, is also receiving attention.
Connections
| Connections | Author name Sort descending | Excerpt |
|---|---|---|
| Residence | Rosina Bulwer Lytton Baroness Lytton | She lived for some years at Llangollen in Wales, recently the home of Lady Eleanor Butler
and Sarah Ponsonby
. Lytton, Rosina Bulwer Lytton, Baroness. “Introduction”. A Blighted Life, edited by Marie Mulvey Roberts, Thoemmes, 1994, p. vi - xxxvi. xix-xxi |
| Textual Production | Winifred Maxwell Countess of Nithsdale | She told her sister
that noe body but your selfe could have obtain'd [this] from me, for whom my obligations has imposed me a law of never refusing any that lys in my power. You... |
| Textual Production | Ann Lady Fanshawe | Lady Eleanor Butler
and Sarah Ponsonby
, the ladies of Llangollen, meticulously transcribed the whole of ALF
's Memoirs (dating from May 1676) as a present for a friend. Mavor, Elizabeth. The Ladies of Llangollen. Penguin, 1973. 62 |
| Friends, Associates | Sydney Owenson Lady Morgan | Under the patronage of Lady Charleville
, she met many prominent people in the capital in 1808; on the way home to Ireland she visited, as well as Lady Stanley
and her Shrewsbury relations, the... |
| Textual Features | Natalie Clifford Barney | In L'amour défenduNCB
defends the proposition that only love is important, not the sex to whom it is directed. Barney, Natalie Clifford, and Karla Jay. A Perilous Advantage: The Best of Natalie Clifford Barney. Translator Anna Livia, New Victoria Publishers, 1992. 85 |
| Textual Production | Eva Mary Bell | EMB
, as Mrs. G. H. Bell (John Travers), edited The Hamwood Papers of the Ladies
of Llangollen
and Caroline Hamilton. OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999. |
| Author summary | Eva Mary Bell | EMB
's fourteen books, published between 1910 and 1931, are mostly novels, and most of them appeared under the pseudonym of John Travers. She is remembered, if at all, for those set in British... |
| Theme or Topic Treated in Text | Eva Mary Bell | EMB
's foreword and her comment on her material is brief. She makes skilful use of letters and diaries, not only those of this famous pair but of their friends and supporters Mrs Lucy Goddard |
| Family and Intimate relationships | Elizabeth Ogilvy Benger | Among EOB
's literary friends, Elizabeth Hamilton
was special. When Benger mentions Hamilton's delight in fostering unprotected talent, especially female talent, she is probably thinking of her own. She prints letters which are almost certainly... |
| Friends, Associates | Mary Matilda Betham | As well as meeting at Llangollen with Lady Eleanor Butler
and Sarah Ponsonby
(who later talked with high praise of her), Betham, Ernest, editor. A House of Letters. Jarrold and Sons, 1905. 69, 70 |
| Theme or Topic Treated in Text | Mary Matilda Betham | Here already MMB
evinces her interest in women's literary history: her topics include praise for writers including Ann Radcliffe
and the Ladies of Llangollen (Lady Eleanor Butler
and Sarah Ponsonby
). One of the... |
| Theme or Topic Treated in Text | E. Owens Blackburne | EOB
's preface also singles out what she claims to be an original account of the true Blackburne, E. Owens. Illustrious Irishwomen. Tinsley Brothers, 1877, 2 vols. I: viii |
| Reception | E. Owens Blackburne | In the same preface EOB
promises to include some previously unpublished poems by William Wordsworth
, apparently in connection with the Ladies of Llangollen. Between the publication of the two volumes, however, Wordsworth's son forbade... |
| Family and Intimate relationships | Henrietta Maria Bowdler | Elizabeth Mavor
, biographer of Butler
and Ponsonby
, classes as romantic attachments HMB
's friendships with both of them, with Smith
, and with Margaret Davies
. Bowdler was, says Mavor, inclined to adopt... |
| Travel | Henrietta Maria Bowdler | HMB
rented a cottage in the village of Llangollen in Denbighshire, to be near her friends Lady Eleanor Butler
and Sarah Ponsonby
. Mavor, Elizabeth. The Ladies of Llangollen. Penguin, 1973. 131 |
Timeline
1782: George Romney painted a picture to illustrate...
Women writers item
1782
George Romney
painted a picture to illustrate (after the fact) William Hayley
'a Triumphs of Temper, 1781: Serena, reading Burney
's Evelina. The model was Honora Sneyd
.
Brewer, John. The Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century. Farrar Straus Giroux, 1997.
607, 609
1 April 1789: Hester Lynch Piozzi (a propos reports about...
Building item
1 April 1789
Hester Lynch Piozzi
(a propos reports about Marie Antoinette
) indignantly recorded what she presents as if it was her first encounter with lesbianism.
Mavor, Elizabeth. The Ladies of Llangollen. Penguin, 1973.
78
March 1908: Mary Louisa Gordon, who had qualified as...
Building item
March 1908
Mary Louisa Gordon
, who had qualified as both a physician and a midwife and had practised medicine in London since 1900, was appointed the first female prison inspector in Britain.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Texts
Butler, Lady Eleanor et al. “Foreword and Editorial Materials”. The Hamwood Papers of the Ladies of Llangollen and Caroline Hamilton, edited by Eva Mary Bell, Macmillan, 1930, p. vii - viii; various pages.
Butler, Lady Eleanor, and Sarah Ponsonby. Life with the Ladies of Llangollen. Editor Mavor, Elizabeth, Viking, 1984.
Butler, Lady Eleanor et al. The Hamwood Papers of the Ladies of Llangollen and Caroline Hamilton. Editor Bell, Eva Mary, Macmillan, 1930.